Somerset County Libraries participate in World Book Night

On April 23, 25,000 volunteers from Berkeley to Bridgewater, and Sitka to Sarasota will give away half a million free books in more than 6,000 towns and cities across the country. World Book Night U.S. is an ambitious campaign to give thousands of free, specially printed paperbacks to light or nonreaders across America on one day. Volunteer book lovers help promote reading by going out into their communities and sharing free copies of books they love. The mission of World Book Night is to seek out those without the means or access to printed books.

Some of the volunteers in the community will be picking up their books at the Bridgewater Library in Bridgewater, and sharing them in locations as diverse as VA hospitals, roller skating rinks, mass transit, nursing homes, schools, food pantries, and more. Somerset County Library System (SCLS) is proud to be a partner in World Book Night U.S. for a second year.

Bestselling authors Ann Patchett and James Patterson are this year’s honorary chair-people. James Patterson said: “In my experience, when people like what they are doing, they do more of it. This is the genius of World Book Night — it gets people reading by connecting them with amazing, enjoyable books. I’m honored to be a part of it.”

“I’m very proud to be a part of World Book Night,” Ann Patchett added. “As both a writer and a bookseller, I’m all in favor of getting books into the hands of people who might not otherwise have access to them.”

The books were chosen by an independent panel of booksellers and librarians through several rounds of voting. The printing of the free books was possible due to generosity of the authors, publishers, and book manufacturing companies.

Those interested in participating in the future can sign up for the WBN mailing list for news and updates on World Book Night 2014. The free WBN editions are not available at SCLS at any time, except for the WBN volunteers to take into the community, but we will be displaying the books in their regular editions all spring.

The 30 World Book Night U.S. titles for 2013, alphabetical by author, are:

World Book Night will take place on April 23. World Book Night in the U.S. is a non-profit organization and has 501(c)3 nonprofit status. World Book Night U.S. is supported by publishers, Barnes & Noble, the American Booksellers Association, the American Library Association, Ingram Content Group, FedEx, printers, and paper companies; a full list of sponsors is at our website. For more information about World Book Night, go to WorldBookNight.org or visit us on Facebook and Twitter. facebook.com/worldbooknightusa and twitter.com/wbnamerica